Both sides in the drug case against a councilwoman agreed Thursday to postpone until June 16 a hearing on whether to retry Rita Rogers, 55, on crack cocaine charges. A Riverside County jury deadlocked in March on whether Rogers conspired with her son to make and sell crack cocaine. The same jury returned guilty verdicts on all three counts against the councilwoman's 30-year-old son, Joseph Raymond Rogers, including charges of manufacturing and possessing crack cocaine with the intent to sell.

The Riverside County district attorney's office agreed to postpone a decision Thursday on whether to retry Perris Councilwoman Rita Rogers on drug charges. A jury in March deadlocked on charges that Rogers, 55, conspired with her son to make and sell crack cocaine. The same jury returned guilty verdicts on all three counts against the councilwoman's son, Joseph Raymond Rogers, 30, including charges of manufacturing and possessing crack cocaine with intent to sell.

A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the case of a Perris councilwoman after a Riverside County jury deadlocked on charges that she conspired with her son to make and sell crack cocaine. Marita "Rita" Gaye Rogers, 55, sat silently as Superior Court Judge Helios J. Hernandez announced that the jury was unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for more than three days.

A Riverside County jury was unable to reach a verdict Monday in the trial of a Perris councilwoman charged with conspiring to make crack cocaine, but the jury could be asked to continue deliberating today, court officials said. Marita "Rita" Gaye Rogers, 55, is accused of helping her 30-year-old son run a drug operation out of her Mead Valley home. Jurors reached a verdict on charges against the son, Joseph Raymond Rogers, a decision scheduled to be read today, Superior Court Judge Helios J.

A 96-year-old woman said she does not know how the crack cocaine that deputies found on her got into her wheelchair. Julia Roberts of Kings Mountain was charged with possession of crack with intent to sell and deliver, and with possessing a crack pipe, sheriff's officials said. She was freed pending a hearing.

As chamber of commerce executives go, Stebbins Dean hasn't had an easy job. For more than a decade, he has tried to burnish this city's lackluster image, proclaiming its oft-hidden virtues to doubting CEOs around the state and country. Each headline seemed to add insult to his cause: Fresno -- the arson capital of the West. Fresno -- the nation's No. 2 city for auto theft. Fresno -- America's worst smog. On Tuesday, the city's fervent huckster became the subject of his own tarnished headline.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission indicated Friday that it will ask Congress to change drug laws to reduce differences in punishments involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine, a change the Justice Department believes is unnecessary. The sentencing commission, in a statement, said it was concerned not only about whether cocaine punishments were fair but also "whether the penalties are perceived as fair."

A woman was convicted Wednesday and sentenced to 12 years in prison for killing her unborn child by using crack cocaine during her pregnancy. The verdict marks the first time that anyone in the United States has been found guilty of homicide for taking drugs during pregnancy, said an advocate for the defendant, Regina McKnight. A jury found McKnight, 24, guilty after deliberating for 15 minutes. She could have faced a life sentence. McKnight's lawyers said they will appeal.

Darryl Strawberry told his probation officer he spent the four days he was missing using cocaine with a female friend and armed men who took his jewelry and abandoned him in a motel room. In a report to the judge who will decide if the former baseball star will go to prison, Florida probation officials said Tuesday that Strawberry tested positive for cocaine use and violated the terms of his house arrest in his four-day absence from a drug rehabilitation center.